The Car

Leaving for work there'd been no car outside in the designated parking area for the flats but when I got back in the afternoon there was most certainly a car there. It was like somebody had flicked a switch that made a car appear. And not just any car, let me tell you, a really stupid car. Occasionally somebody parks in one of the two spaces outside. The shop itself has a garage, the spaces are for the flats but the owner of the building sometimes parks in one of the spaces but he's got a proper car and so I looked at the car for a while before going inside and getting changed. I went for a run along the front.

I hoped that when I got back the car would be gone and everything would be back to normal but it was still there and so I stood a looked at it for a while before I got too cold. The car was American and looked like a tombstone that had been pushed over by a Welshman.

Getting changed I decided the car had been dumped and everything was going to be okay. That explained it nicely. If it was still there in a day I'd report it to somebody. The correct authorities or the people who tow away dumped cars. And the knobs in the scrapyard can deal with it. I hate those guys. The scrapyard guys. The scrapyard is at the top of the valley. I work in the regular waste disposal plant which is at the bottom of the valley. There's tension there between the two factions. The scrapyard dicks drive too fast past our gates getting up to their scrapyard in their cars festooned with parts they've harvested. Fucking dicks. Like Mod scooters in car form. I have to go up there sometimes and by God it's grim. Just jagged metal everywhere, it doesn't need to be like that.

Example: I made this at work, well, started it off my own back and now the guys - especially Vince - save the any cuddly-duddly toys for me and when I get a chance I hang them up there, a dump needn't be a depressing place to visit.

You go up to the scrapyard and they've got nothing like that. They've got a warehouse full of car parts. Big wow.

After I got changed I went to the window and looked down on the car. I checked on it regularly over the next hour and then I went to the cafe for my tea. I had fish and a laugh with Rui. His mum's dog ate his teeth and I'm not even joking. He'd been eating chicken wings at his mum's and had taken his teeth out so he could gnaw on the bones and his mother had given the pile of gnawed bones to the dog and also Rui's teeth. He laughed about this and so did I but if it happened to me I'd probably kill myself. I bought some wine from the Spar and when I got back with my wine I paused next to the car. There was a light on in the flat upstairs. My worst fear realised. And so I went inside and opened my wine and listened. The person upstairs, the owner of the car seemed to be using a fuck load of hot water. The cylinder seemed to be refilling constantly and it was hard to relax. Eventually I turned to TV on to cover the noise. I watched Masterchef Australia although it was a masterclass show and I don't like those shows. I like the shows when somebody gets eliminated.

I did 6x1km with 500m jogs between. After the forth I met Kenny who cycled beside me for the last two. I thought I'd been going as fast as possible for the first 4ks but the last two, trying to keep up with Kenny, were the fastest. I wore my Asics Piranhas and after the sixth I sat on the wall and let Kenny hold one. He couldn't believe how light they were.